this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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No man, authoritarians of every stripe are fucking evil.
You cannot actually be a member of the left and be in favor of authoritarianism. It goes back to the very beginning of the terms left and right to describe political leanings. We can blame the French, but the term started with a vote, the question was "should the king have an absolute veto" Those who said yes sat on the right, those who said no on the left.
In other words, the authoritarians sat on the right, the people who believed in the power of the people sat on the left.
Tankies take the ideals of the left, and then subvert them in favor of authoritarianism. Orwell wrote about it in Animal Farm, the betrayal of the revolution by the Pigs, because while all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others.
Tankies are just another form of monarchist, pretending to be an ally of the left. I do lump them in with Nazis as being dangerous to my ideals of equality and freedom. After all, tankies are just as likely to kill actual communists, it's how the name was coined.
Yes you can be a leftist and a tyrant. Its called communism.
Yes, the tyranny of workers owning the factories they labor in. Collectively owning the businesses they work for, everyone having an equal voice in government.
And before you chime in with nonsense, Lenin and Mao both decided that some animals were more equal than other animals. They betrayed the ideal to hoard power to themselves, to make themselves the most equal of all, and their people suffered for it, because that's what authoritarianism does. Stalin was worse in every way, taking the mask off fully.
All three killed actual communists who wanted a free and open society, a democratic communism of the people, by the people, for the people. It's where the term Tankie comes from. Stalin used tanks to put down the Hungarian revolution, see, Hungary wanted to be communist, they just didn't want to be a soviet buffer state. They wanted their own government. So Stalin ordered the tanks in, and Tankies in western nations cheered.
They cheered again at Tiananmen Square.
Because actual communism is always a threat to authoritarians, be they mask off right wing, or the ones who pretend to be "lefties" while actually agreeing with every single thing western conservatives say, but with a different country worshiped.
Speaking of, both China and Russia are fully capitalistic now, they went mask off a few decades back. Because capitalism is a great way to promote that inequality that authoritarianism demands.
Imagine thinking people on the left can't be authoritarian.
The left tries to get rid of hierarchies, the right relies on them.
You sort of need a hierarchy to have authoritarianism.
The perfect refutation of that, ironically, is a rapist and their victim.
Well they failed every chance they got. It literally turned into Leninist Communism where there's a top down structure never has been a socialist paradise and never can be. Someone will quickly take the reigns if somebody gives up their own.